when i watch preparation games between switzerland and germany on dsf (now sport1?) the commentator loves to quote Hans Zach about the problem with the youth hockey. he says, that only a few teams have a really good promotion of young hockey player and on the other hand, for the most clubs, it only exist on paper .... that's why zach want a import limit. so ALL clubs start to focuss on the youth ...
my question, is it really so bad? i know, that in Bavaria they do a really good job. what's about the rest of germany?

the situation of youth hockey is hard to explain, because there are so many aspects.
the lack of rinks is one thing. especially with the multi-functional arenas, you need one, better would be two, extra rinks to let the pro team practice but also to give the kids ice-time. while every arena has one other rink usually, it's not enough IMO. and the best hours per day are blocked for the pro team. then the rink has to be finances which leads to public skating where you earn money. so kids hockey bumps down again. that leads to awful times for kids to practice. may it be in the evening or early in the morning.

the you have the youth programs in general. in bavaria where there's a hockey culture, some teams produce a lot of talent. landshut for example produced a lot of talent lately. bad tölz and füssen are two other examples. there are a few more.
but outside of bavaria there are some really good programs too. mannheim in first place who have an amazing program. berlin and the clubs in the west (cologne, düsseldorf, krefeld) do a pretty good job too.
you have some smaller clubs like schwenningen, iserlohn, maybe kassel who try to do the best they can with very limited funds.
and you have a few teams in non-hockey areas who try, but...well...they try. hamburger sv/bremerhaven to mention the north.
in southern germany hockey is more common, there are more rinks, there's more interest, so there's more talent. while in northern parts with lower interest there's obviously less talent.

but...all of those structure problems alone are not the problem. i personally think the talent in germany is there and germany could crack the top8 nations easily with talent alone. the problem is that you need to develop talent and here comes the big failure. the steps from youth hockey to pro hockey are not easy. but in germany it's even tougher. because even in 2nd-tier the teams rather play import players or former imports with a german passport than to develop a young player.
it's easier for a canadian to get a german passport than for a young german to get ice-time.

mannheim for example spends a ******** of money each year for their U18 team, yet they failed in the past to turn those guys into good DEL players. they get loaned to 2nd-tier heilbronn, play only bottom 6 there too and stop developing. they get no chance to prove themselves. the lineup is basically a rundown of the salary. the salary decides where you play.

i could continue with those examples forever, but that basically counts for every DEL team.

the reasons why teams don't use youth are different. coaches for example have to rely on imports, because these days everyone wants to get success fast. if a coach uses youth and says he wants to develop them and asks for a 2-3y window to build something, you can be sure he's fired midseason because of the lack of success. there's no patience anymore.

the reduction of imports would help, but it should be in steps. at the moment there are not enough well-developed talents to fill those spots. reduce by 1 each year would give enough time to develop more players into solid DELers. the talent is there, but you need to give them a chance or they will stop with progress, rotting in minors.